Percussion instruments in the musical arts are among the oldest instruments known, having origins in hollowed logs played with sticks. Drums, bells, cymbals, and the like have been manufactured and played in almost every culture and form a part of all known sorts of organized music.
Drum sets, popularly known as kits by the musicians who play them, have advanced in the art considerably since the advent of rock music in the 1950's, and have taken on perhaps a more central roll in later forms of rock, such as the music forms known as hard rock, acid rock, and "heavy metal". Perhaps the essential reason for the enhanced importance of percussion instruments in these music forms is an underlying component element of heavy rhythm.
Drummers are, like most musicians, very individualistic, and motivated at all times toward innovation both in equipment and style. Moreover, a drummer's "instrument" is more correctly a group of instruments, more so than with most other musicians. A modern kit includes at least one base drum played with a foot pedal, various sorts of bells and cymbals, several other sorts of drums on stands, such as snare drums, and more. Different drummers use different components, and arrange the components quite differently.
Even with all the variation in kits and components, however, there are many commonalities. Almost all kits have at least one base drum, and most kits include a cymbal set called a high-hat. It is with base drums and high-hats that the present invention is principally concerned.
Base drums are typically cylindrical bodies held in a stand with cylindrical axis horizontal, having drum heads at each end, and played by a pivoted striker attached to the stand and operated by a foot pedal. A high-hat is a cymbal set having two opposed cymbals oriented substantially horizontally and normally spaced apart by a short distance (an inch or so). The lower cymbal of the two-cymbal set is typically suspended in a felt-padded clamping device firmly attached to a stationary hollow vertical shaft. This lower cymbal does not normally change position.
The upper cymbal of the two-cymbal set of a high-hat is typically suspended in a felt-padded clamping device attached to a rod passing up through the stationary hollow vertical shaft and guided in linear bearing guides in the hollow shaft. The rod carrying the upper cymbal is operable by a spring-biased foot pedal similar to the foot pedal provided for a base drum striker. The position of the upper cymbal on the central rod is typically adjustable in a high-hat.
A drummer in some instances may strike the upper cymbal with a drum stick with the high-hat "open", in which case the sound is that of a felt-suspended cymbal struck. The drummer may create another rhythmic effect by bringing the cymbals together by depressing the foot-pedal. To borrow an electrical engineering term, the high-hat is "normally open", and is closed by depressing the foot pedal. When a drummer moves his foot from the foot pedal (releases the pedal), the spring bias of the foot pedal, applied to the central rod upon which the upper cymbal is mounted, opens the high-hat.
A drummer in some instances strikes the high-hat upper cymbal with the high-hat closed, and there are many, many variations in rhythm and sound which a drummer may produce by varying the foot pressure and timing of operation in opening and closing the high-hat, the relative open position of the cymbals, the stick or brush used to strike, the position and force of the strike, the variations in timing of strikes, the interweaving of strikes on the high-hat with effects produced on other apparatus in the kit, and more.
In later and more volumetric forms of rock, such as heavy metal rock, drummers often incorporate two base drum units into a single kit. This is termed "double-base". Double base enhances the base beat and makes it possible to provide more varied and interesting base beats. Also, in these double-base kits, high-hats are still used to produce essentially the same sounds and effects that high-hats are known to produce. There is a problem, however. Each base unit has a foot pedal, the high-hat has a foot pedal, and most drummers have but two feet.
With a three-foot-pedal kit, there are invariably times that a drummer wants to be "on" the double base, and at the same time to strike the high-hat cymbal set "closed". With the original form of high-hat apparatus this could not be done. Accordingly, a high-hat speed clutch was developed, wherein the upper cymbal of the high-hat is carried in a tandem unit.
The clutch portion of the tandem unit is firmly fastened to the central operating rod, and includes a spring-biased pivoted operating lever for carrying a suspension member that in turn carries the upper cymbal of the high-hat. The pivoted lever engages a downward-facing shoulder of the suspension member, and with the clutch engaged, the high-hat operates in the conventional way, that is, when the drummer operates the foot lever, the cymbals are brought together.
With the speed clutch, when one goes on the double base, necessarily releasing the high-hat foot lever, the high-hat opens, as is conventional. The drummer, however, has the option of striking the spring-biased operating lever of the speed clutch with a sideward stroke, which disengages the lever from the downward-facing shoulder, and allows the suspension member, carrying the upper cymbal, to fall. The upper cymbal drops on the lower cymbal, and the spring-biased operating lever then presses on a sloped cam surface of the suspension member, urging the cymbals of the high-hat together. The drummer can now operate the double base, one with each foot, and also strike the closed high-hat cymbals, biased closed by the spring-cam feature of the speed clutch.
To open the high-hat again, the drummer shifts one foot to the high-hat foot pedal, and depresses the pedal fully. This causes the spring-biased operating lever of the speed clutch to ride over the cam portion of the suspension member, re-engaging the downward-facing shoulder. Then when the foot pedal is released again, the central rod raises, carrying the upper cymbal along by virtue of the engaged speed clutch. The high-hat can now be operated again in the conventional way.
The design and operation of the conventional speed clutch will be made more apparent by drawings and further description below in the description of various embodiments of the present invention.
The conventional speed clutch, while making it possible to use the double base, and at the same time to strike a closed high-hat, still has serious drawbacks and limitations. One is that the spring-biased operating lever is a relatively small target, and, depending on other immediate demands, the drummer may not be able to look at the speed clutch and carefully aim a sideward stroke to disengage the clutch. As a result, there is a high incidence of misses in striking the operating lever of the speed clutch. When one misses, the continuity of playing is interrupted, and one or more additional strokes have to be used to operate the speed clutch.
Another problem is that a stroke has to be used at all. The stroke to operate the speed clutch is not a musical stroke, and has no function in "licks" a drummer creates. It is an unwelcome sound as well.
What is needed is a reliable, no-miss means of operating the speed clutch at the right time, that is, when the drummer goes on the double base, without a stick stroke. Such an apparatus would allow the drummer to use the time formerly used for striking the operating lever for striking another musical element, enhancing the play. Such an apparatus would also eliminate the unwanted sound of striking the speed clutch operating lever.